Chances
by Lonely Little Angel
Summary: S3. As Elena and Damon search for some answers about the bloody deaths in Richmond, they encounter someone who's willing to help them, but wouldn't mind taking Damon away from Elena in the process.
1. Part One

We need some Delena. 'Cause it's good.

Disclaimer: don't own _Vampire Diaries _or any of its characters. The plot and the OC's are my creations, though.

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><p><strong>Part<strong>** One **

When they had heard about the terrible and bloody deaths in Richmond, Elena and Damon decided to go there. Or rather, Elena persuaded Damon to bring her with him because she wanted to see if it really could be because of Stefan these murders were happening.

His reason for not wanting her to go was that it'd be harder for him to keep her safe in a city where murderers were wandering around.

Her reason for why he should let her come with him was that if it really was Stefan, she would probably have a bigger chance of succeeding in bringing him back. Her hope was small, but she was more than willing to try.

They had argued about it, neither one wanting to give in, but in the end Damon had caved and brought her with him — on the condition that she'd do what he told her so she wouldn't get herself killed.

So now here they were, walking the streets of Richmond, Virginia, trying to find out as much as possible about the deaths without being too suspicious.

In Damon's opinion, things were going pretty well.

"What I don't get is why we have to walk around this place at night."

"Because it's easier to get around after nightfall," Damon told her. "Also, if we ask drunk people they're gonna forget a stranger who asked about something everyone in the city already knows about."

"But if we ask someone who's drunk they're also not going to know or say things that aren't true," she argued.

"Don't be such a pessimist, Elena. Have a little faith."

"Don't you think it'd be smarter if we asked someone who _isn't _drunk?" she wondered pointedly. "You know, so they can actually give us some real information?"

"You're forgetting what I am," he said. "I can always compel them to tell the truth. As long as they're not on vervain, they can't lie."

Elena heaved a sigh of defeat. "Fine. You have a point."

"Of course I do." Damon walked one step ahead of Elena, as if ready to move in front of her at the first sign of danger, but they'd been walking the streets for almost half an hour now and there hadn't been trouble.

Further down the street there was a crowd of people outside an entrance to an apparently popular place. The name said it was a bar, but judging by the throbbing music that escaped the more or less open door it appeared to be more of a nightclub. The closer they got, the easier they could hear it.

"Should we check it out?" Elena asked.

Damon gave her a somewhat funny look. "And what would we do in there?"

"Someone might recognize us later and they'll be more willing to tell us about the deaths," she explained. "I know it sounds farfetched, but isn't it worth a try?"

"You make it sound like strangers aren't welcome here," he commented.

"Well? Are we going in or not?" Elena questioned.

He looked at her over his shoulder. "All right. I'm in the mood for a drink anyway."

They walked in through the door to the bar slash nightclub; Damon quickly making his way to the bar counter, Elena following him without hesitance as she looked around her. They sat down on a barstool, and Damon ordered whiskey. He took a gulp of it as he too looked at their surroundings.

"Oh, damn," he spoke suddenly, his hand stopping momentarily on the way back up to his mouth, both of his eyebrows raised.

"What?" Elena asked, looking wonderingly at him.

He sent her a smirk. "I wonder how Stefan would react if he ever saw you doing that," he said and nodded his head in direction of a more crowded area of the spacious room where people were dancing.

Elena looked at where he looked, and one of her own eyebrows lifted up when she found what he meant.

On a table, three people were dancing with each other, a young woman in the middle with one man in front of and behind her. She had one arm behind her, gripping the hair of the man behind her, while the other was hooked around the first man's neck. All three were standing extremely close to one another, eyes closed and lips sensually parted, hips grinding and bodies swaying.

"I don't think he would appreciate it," Elena finally said as she looked away from the intimate trio and back at her companion, running a hand through her long, dark brown hair.

Damon snorted scornfully. "I _know _he wouldn't appreciate it," he retorted. "He's too much of a prude to."

"Do _you _like it?" Elena questioned him with a meaningful look.

"I can't say I don't. It looks damn hot." He eyed the way the black short-sleeved sheath dress clung to every curve of the woman's body, how long her legs seemed like when her feet were adorned with the strappy rhinestone-decorated high heels, and how low her neckline was cut.

"The dancing or her?"

He turned his light blue eyes to her, one corner of his mouth quirked up. "Are you jealous?"

"No," she said flatly.

"I can't blame you if you are. That body's good. And no offense, but her hair is in an entirely different league than yours," he said, motioning with his head to the woman's enormous mass of waist-length curls.

"I'm not jealous," Elena objected.

"Or that mouth," he went on mercilessly. "Have you ever seen such red lips? It looks like she's dipped them in blood."

"It's called lipstick," Elena said scathingly. Then she saw the glimmer in his eyes and the smug expression on his face and she realized she'd fallen into his trap. She was on edge; worried about Stefan and she was worried what she really felt for the older brother. It was only natural for her to be irritable if he was flirting with someone when they had important things to do.

Although he wasn't actually flirting.

"So," she said, steering away from the uncomfortable subject. "What do we do now?"

"It was your idea to come in here," he reminded her, taking a new mouthful of whiskey. "You tell me."

"We could just like…hang around a little," she decided. "We've been here all day reading about the deaths from every newspaper possible, and I think we should either find a place to stay tonight or we go back to Mystic Falls. I mean, it's already pretty dark and it takes a couple of hours to drive."

"All right, all right," Damon interrupted. "We'll find a hotel or something. With separate beds, I promise," he added. "You stay here while I ask around a little, okay?" He downed the rest of the amber liquor before he stood up and walked off.

"All right," Elena agreed and turned to the man behind the bar counter to order a soda so she could cure her dry throat. The comment about separate beds made her a little nervous.

She regarded the people around her, but no one seemed to care she was sitting there. She didn't mind it, but the throbbing music didn't suit her taste at the moment as she felt the beginning of a headache after a while. She rubbed her temples with her fingertips in small circles in an attempt to halter the incoming onslaught.

"You okay?"

She jumped when Damon's voice appeared right next to her ear, his breath fanning her cheek. "Sort of," she answered. "I think I'm starting to get a headache." She looked up at him. "Isn't the volume bothering you?" she asked, referring to his heightened hearing.

"Not really, and if it would, I'd just focus on something else," he replied.

"Well, it's bothering me. Can we go?" she asked.

"Sure." Damon placed his hand on her arm so they wouldn't lose each other in the crowd. It gave her a sense of comfort in all the craziness going on right now.

"Did you find anything out?" she questioned when they once again were outdoors in the fresh air. Her head already felt a little better.

He shrugged. "Not much. Everybody says the same thing; the bodies were beaten and there was blood all over the place. Nobody knows any details. It's a dead end."

Elena nodded. "For someone to know the details, it would either be those who saw the bodies themselves or the police. There's no way we'll find someone who saw them without asking every single person we meet."

"Then we'll just have to go to the cops tomorrow and ask for the files instead," Damon said simply.

"What? Damon, no, we can't do that," she protested, sounding appalled.

"Of course we can," he insisted.

"The files are classified information. The public isn't allowed to know what it says unless the police tell it," she pointed out.

He turned around and gave her a smug look, his mouth curved in a smirk.

She glared at him. "_No_. You are _not _going to compel them," she said firmly.

"Why not?" he asked. "It's not like anybody's gonna get hurt. We get the information we want and they won't have to worry about a thing. We might even be the ones to get rid of the perpetrator and then we're just doing them all a favor, aren't we?" he said.

Elena took a step back as he was getting a little too close for comfort with that look on his face. "But that's cheating," she objected.

"That depends on how see it. Aren't the cops cheating in one way when they won't give out all the information they have? If everyone knew, people might know who to look out for and if there's a certain kind of people who're in danger, they'd be safer if the public had access to the files." His smirk broadened and there was a triumphant glint in his ice-blue eyes. "And we did agree that you would do whatever I said, didn't we?" he added smoothly.

"We did," she agreed in a grumble.

"Exactly. And I say we're gonna talk to the cops. You want to know if it's Stefan, right?" he said. "How can you help him if you don't know anything?"

"This is blackmail," she said through gritted teeth.

"I call it persuasion," he countered. "It's working, anyway. Tomorrow we go to the police station and see if we can sniff something out."

"And am I supposed to be with you when you do the compelling?" Elena questioned.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't 'cause things that you don't like could happen, even though I'm a well-behaved man."

She held back a snort and a slow smile spread over her face when she found a loophole. "So I'm just going to stand outside of the police station and wait for you? Who knows what could happen? I could get kidnapped again."

"Who's doing the blackmailing now, huh?" Damon retorted.

"It's called persuasion," she mimicked cheekily.

"You'll just have to stand inside of the police station instead."

"And draw attention to myself?" she asked and raised her dark eyebrows. "Wouldn't it be better if we raise as little suspicion as possible? Then I can't be inside the police station."

He thought it over for a while. "I hate to admit it, but you've got a point," he said. "That's a problem. I know I can do a lot of things better than everyone else, but not even I can be in two places at once. There's no point in bringing you with me, because it would draw unwanted attention."

"So does that mean we're going to find another way to get information?" Elena's tone was gleefully victorious.

Damon smirked at her. "We'll find another way. But that doesn't necessarily mean you'll like it," he said, and her spirits died a little.

"But we'll figure it out together," she demanded pointedly. "I want to do something about this situation as much as you do."

"I have a feeling you want to more than I do," he countered.

Elena directed her deep brown eyes to the dark sky above them. "I think we should find a place to stay for the night," she suggested again. "It's really late."

"No problem. I know exactly where to go," Damon assured her.

"Please don't tell me it doesn't have something to do with compulsion," she sighed.

"At first it didn't, but now that you mentioned it, of course I have to do it," he teased.

She rolled her eyes in reply. "Let's just go, Damon."

"Ladies first," he said with a mock bow.

"I don't know the way to wherever we're going," she deadpanned.

"You're such a spoilsport," he accused her.

She gave him an irritated look. "I'm just trying to help Stefan," she defended herself. "If it's really him. I don't have time to have too much fun. I want to save him."

"I know you do, but if you only think of the bad, it's gonna be a lot harder for you to actually save him," Damon told her.

"I know, Damon," she said quietly. "But thank you for letting me come here. With you."

"You're welcome, Elena," he responded with a softness in his voice that hadn't been there before. "I know how much it means to you."

She let her hand rest on his arm for a while as sign of gratitude, and she felt warm on the inside when he rubbed her back in return for comfort.

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><p><strong>Don't just fave and run if you like it. Review, too.<strong>


	2. Part Two

Disclaimer: don't own _Vampire Diaries _or any of its characters. The plot and the OC's are my creations, though.

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><p><strong>Part Two <strong>

"So, how do we this?" Elena wondered as they walked down the street a day later. "We need to know as much as we can about the murders."

"I still say we talk to the cops," Damon answered.

"You mean compel them to tell you what's in the files."

"Of course. They're never gonna tell me anything without that. _You _might have a bigger chance of getting them to tell you something if you take some clothes off," he said, giving her his Damon-face; all smirk and eyebrows.

"Damon!" she exclaimed and aimed a fist at his arm, but missed when he easily dodged the blow. "I would never do something like that!"

"That's a shame. I'd love to see you do that."

"I'm not Katherine," she said angrily.

"I know you're not," he said and held up his hands in surrender. "I was only trying to lighten the mood."

"Well, you didn't succeed with that," she muttered irritably. What kind of thing was that to say? It certainly didn't make her happier. But she let it go when she accidentally bumped into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she apologized with a tiny, sheepish smile.

The young woman turned to face them. There was no mistaking it. She was the one from the nightclub. Now in daylight Elena could see that the abundant curls that tumbled heavily over her shoulders all the way down to her waist with fantastic volume were two-toned, top layers golden-brown and bottom layers chestnut-colored.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled. "It didn't hurt."

"You're the one who danced with two guys on a table last night," Damon said, recognizing her as well.

"Oh, you saw that?" she spoke pleasantly, a smirk playing around the corners of her mouth.

"It was hard to miss."

The smirk took over her face completely. "Something tells me that you wanted to be one of them. Don't worry, the next time I'm going to do that, I'll give you a call so you can come with me and have me all to yourself."

Talk about being straightforward. Elena stared at her, while Damon's eyebrows lifted. "I'm flattered that you so openly tell that you're attracted to me, but sadly I'll have to decline," he said.

"That's all right. It doesn't matter to me who it is as long as someone does it," she replied lightly.

Elena puckered her eyebrows. "Okay…" she said slowly.

"You're bleeding," Damon said suddenly, eyeing one of the young woman's knees.

"Oh." She looked down and spotted the red trickle beneath the hem of her black trench coat. "Must've dripped," she mumbled, licked her index finger and wiped it off her leg. Then she held out her bloody finger in Damon's direction. "Wanna taste?" she asked with a lopsided grin.

"Why would I?" he replied.

She raised her eyebrows as if it were obvious, with a teasing glimmer in her eyes. "Because you're a vampire."

"What makes you think I am?" he said, surprise and defiance making his voice harsh.

"You said that I was bleeding before you looked down," she answered simply. "A human wouldn't have known because they can't smell it, but vampires can. And since you don't want it, I'll take it," she added and put her finger into her mouth.

"So," Elena spoke warily, "you're a vampire, too?" She had had her share of violent and malicious vampires. She had to be careful.

"Obviously," the curly-haired woman drawled. "Name's Cindy."

"Well, aren't you unusually friendly?" Damon commented sardonically.

Cindy smiled wryly. "Not particularly," she objected. "My mission here's to kill someone, but you don't have to worry about that."

"Oh, really?" Damon's voice still hadn't lost its acid tone. If anything, it had increased.

"Really," she nodded confirmatively. "You're not even the right species. And if you're worried about your human companion, I can assure you I have no intention to hurt her whatsoever. Truth to be told, I might be able to help you."

"Why would we want help from you?" he asked, rudely emphasizing the 'you'.

Elena jabbed her elbow into his side. Normally she would've said his name in a disapproving tone, but she was still unconvinced about Cindy's so-called harmless intentions concerning her.

"I couldn't help but overhear about the little problem you have with the police," she drawled. "You need the classified information, but you can't come to an agreement on how to do it. Am I right?"

"And your point is?"

"I can get the information for you," Cindy clarified. "I'm going to take a look at it myself, and I have _no _problem sharing," she said with a smirk that strangely enough only could be described as lecherous.

"You'd do that?" Elena wondered disbelievingly.

"Do you really think we're gonna trust you?" Damon countered in the same tone as Elena.

"You should give it a shot," she insisted. "How could it hurt you?"

"In plenty of ways. We just don't know them yet."

Cindy pursed her lips. "Well, it's your choice. I'm gonna go and get the information. If you want it later, you can stay here when I get back with the copied files." She put her hand into the pocket of her coat and fished up a round make-up mirror and eyeliner.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked incredulously.

"I'm getting ready," she said, expertly rimming her eyes with more black color. "Having accentuated eyes is very important when you're going to talk people into doing something they shouldn't or don't want to do."

"Uh-huh." Both Elena and Damon watched quietly as she replaced the eyeliner in her hand with a lipstick.

She gave Elena a crooked smirk with her now blood-red mouth, looking very much like she had last night at the club. "If you're ever going to persuade someone by using your womanly attributes, use this," she said and held up the lipstick long enough for Elena to catch the name of it before she put it back into her pocket. "It works wonderfully. Hold this," she added as she untied the wide strap around her waist, and handed her coat to Elena.

Now Cindy's outfit was exactly what Damon had told Elena should wear to get the police to tell them the details; a spaghetti-strapped, deep-cut bustier top in dark red satin with a black lace pattern and trimming, short denim shorts and black stiletto knee-high boots with a pointed toe — the complete opposite of Elena's dark blue jeans and green long-sleeved top under a black jacket with sneakers.

"It sure doesn't look like you could fit a bra under that top," Damon commented, nodding at its tightness around her chest.

Cindy smirked, her eyes glimmering. "That's because I'm not," she revealed, turned around and walked away, displaying her back that would've been bare if it hadn't been for the corset lacing of black ribbons holding her top in place.

"Is she serious?" Elena asked uncertainly.

"She seems to be," Damon answered.

"Should we wait for her?"

"Do you think it's worth a try?"

"I do," she said hesitantly. "I mean, what do we have to lose?"

"Probably a lot, but I guess it's worth a shot. But we still don't know how trustworthy she is," Damon pointed out. "She could be on Klaus' side for all we know."

"Why don't you go ahead and ask her? You seemed to like her attention."

"Are you jealous again?"

"I am _not _jealous," Elena replied. "You don't even know her."

"I don't have to know a woman before we hook up," Damon retorted.

"Stop," she asked him, her nose wrinkled a little. "Just stop. I don't wanna hear it."

"Embarrassed over the naughty details?" he smirked.

She gave him a withering glare. "No. Can you do me a favor and shut up for a minute?"

"Just one minute? I could do that."

Cindy came back a short while later, with an amused grin on her face. "Well, what do you know," she said. "You stayed."

"Are those the files?" Elena wondered and pointed at the folder in her hands.

She fanned herself with it. "It is," Cindy confirmed. "It was so easy to get it that it was barely any fun to do it."

"What do you mean by that? You compelled him, didn't you?"

She smirked. "I usually don't need to compel men to get them to do what I want them to do," she said superiorly. "I have other ways to get people to do what I want."

"So what you're saying is that you're irresistible?" Damon said.

"On the contrary, I'm pretty easy to resist," she objected. "It's just that most men don't. Like this time, for example. This was a piece of cake. He was young, inexperienced. Seducing him into copying me the papers was child's play."

"You _seduced _him into doing it?" Elena said disbelievingly, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes. Wasn't that what you wanted her to do, Damon?" Cindy asked, his name sensually rolling off her tongue, her eyelids lowering.

"I never told you my name," he deadpanned.

"No, but I heard her say it before," she replied slyly.

"What's your reason then for wanting to know about the murders?" Damon questioned, crossing his arms over his chest. "We'd love to know, _Cindy_." He emphasized her name harshly, sardonically.

"'Cause I'm gonna kill the one who's doing it," she answered lightheartedly as she looked through the papers in her hands. "He's crossed the line, rampaging in my city, and I won't allow that. Normally I don't have much against werewolves, but this one is going down." She let out small chuckle at the end.

"It's a werewolf doing this?" Elena asked.

"Uh-huh," Cindy hummed as she looked up again and handed them the folder. "Most of this has happened during full moon, and not just here. He started in New Orleans and has made his way up here, killing innocent people every month."

"That's awful," Elena said, appalled.

"It doesn't look like it's a werewolf who's done it," Damon commented as he and Elena inspected the material in his hands, looking at the pictures. "I'd say there's too much blood around the corpses."

Elena frowned in distaste at the careless word. "Maybe a werewolf and a vampire are working together," she suggested. "It's happened before."

"That's one theory, but it wouldn't work during full moon," Damon pointed out. He fastened his eyes on Cindy, who looked mildly interested. "How much do you know exactly about this?" he asked her.

"More than you do," she said with an arrogant smirk. "But like I said, I'm willing to share the information. Why are you so interested in knowing about it anyway? Don't the newspapers suffice?"

Elena and Damon glanced at each other, unsure about how much they should tell her. "Well," Elena began slowly. "There might be a possibility that if there's a vampire involved in this, we could know him."

"Only a ripper would do something like this," Cindy remarked.

Elena's shoulders slumped. "I know. That's why I'm afraid it's him."

Cindy thoughtfully cocked her head to the side. "So you want to know if there's a vampire involved in this, and if there is, if you know him," she analyzed. "I just wanna kill the werewolf. Something tells me we'd gain more if we work together on this."

Damon was silent for a while, thinking it over. "You could be right," he said. "The more the merrier." He flashed an unamused momentary smirk.

"Right," Cindy laughed. "So is that a yes?"

"It is."

"Unfortunately I can't talk right now because I have somewhere to be," she went on. "I'm free tonight, though. How about we talk things over then?"

"Works for us. Our hotel room?" Damon asked.

"Works for me," she grinned. "I have a thing for hotels."

Elena gave her a weird look as Damon told Cindy the name and room of the hotel. "We'll be waiting. And for your own good I hope you won't betray us," he threatened.

"'Cause you'll hurt me if I do?" she smirked. "Don't worry, I don't plan to. I like doing things for men. Even if they have a girlfriend." She glanced shrewdly at Elena.

"Oh, I'm not his girlfriend," she objected.

Cindy raised her eyebrows. "Really? It looks like you are, the way you two look at each other."

"Well, we're not together," Elena went on, hoping it wouldn't look like she blushed.

"What's your name?" Cindy scowled. "You haven't told me."

"It's Elena."

"Hm. Damon and Elena. Sounds good together." She grinned amusedly at them. "Since I'm in a bit of a hurry, I need to leave. I'll see you tonight." She stretched out after her trench coat that Elena still was holding, put it on without tying the waist strap, gave them a little wave with her hand and then turned on her heels.

"What does 'doing things for men' mean?" Damon wondered, sounding rather confused. "'Cause it sounds sexual."

Cindy stopped and looked at him over her shoulder in that weirdly lecherous manner. "You can interpret that in any way you want," she drawled lazily. "It's probably right either way."

It kind of made sense now. Her behavior at the nightclub, her outfit, how easily she had decided to seduce a policeman of all people to give out classified information.

"You are such a slut," Damon said.

She threw her head back with a laugh. "I've never claimed otherwise." With that, she left them, gaining many turned heads on her way.

"So we look like a couple, huh?" Damon said.

"You're all I have at the moment," Elena replied and looked up at him. "I'm glad you're here."

His lips quirked. "Don't mention it. I enjoy it."

"I bet you do," she countered with a roll of her eyes.

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><p><strong>Don't just fave and run if you like it. Review, too.<strong>


	3. Part Three

There's a little jab at Edward Cullen in here :)

And there's another time skip in this one.

Disclaimer: don't own _Vampire Diaries _or any of its characters. The plot and the OC's are my creations, though.

* * *

><p><strong>Part Three<strong>

"Do you think she'll show up?"

"Probably. I can't say I trust her, but she seemed serious about helping us."

Elena looked out the window. "I wonder where Stefan is," she sighed. "How he's doing."

"He's probably somewhere ripping some girl's throat out," Damon answered.

"Thanks," she said sarcastically. "That helped a lot."

"You're welcome."

She sent him an irritated glance before she went back to looking out the window, crossing her arms. "If she comes, I hope she does soon," she said. "I don't like this waiting. It feels like we're wasting time."

"She'll probably knock on the door any moment now," he said.

And there was a knock on the door.

"What did I tell you?" Damon told her smugly as he went to open the door to their hotel room with — as he'd promised — separate beds. He couldn't protect her if they had separate rooms.

"That's because you cheated," she retorted and turned around. "You heard her coming."

"Who, me? Cheating? I'd never do that," he answered cheekily. He opened the door and was just about to greet Cindy when he saw what she was wearing, and his eyebrows flew up instead.

"Hello, you two," Cindy chirped as she stepped into the room. "You haven't waited too long for me, have you?"

"Um. Cindy," Elena began hesitantly. "Did you walk through the entire city wearing _that_?"

Cindy pouted with her still show-stopping red lips from earlier that afternoon. "What's with the disbelieving tone? Of course I did."

"But you're—"

"You look like a hooker," Damon interrupted bluntly.

There was no other way to describe Cindy's new outfit. She was wearing some kind of semi-sheer plum-colored dress that clung to her curves like a second skin with lace trimming the hem, where garters were connected to her black thigh-high boots.

"What, you don't like it, Damon?" She grinned teasingly as she spun around on the spot to show off her body so he could see it to the fullest.

"It's very unusual," he commented.

She stopped, her abundant mass of curly two-toned hair swinging. "Maybe it's unusual for you, but for me this is casual wear."

"Casual wear. You're kidding me, right?"

"No, why would I do that?" Cindy said as she sat down in an armchair and then threw both her legs over the armrest. "I'm perfectly serious."

"Back to business," Damon began. "You said you know stuff about this. Why are you here?"

"I've already told you that. I'm hunting down a werewolf."

"And are you doing that alone?" he questioned pointedly.

"No," she answered and made herself more comfortable in the armchair with the same confidence and nonchalance a queen would have — very stripped down. "We're five all in all. We've been following the bitch from New Orleans for four months now and we still haven't been able to catch him." Then she shrugged. "Of course, that's probably because we've been slacking off since he left New Orleans two months ago."

"The werewolf's a he and you call him a bitch?" Damon said, his tone appreciative. "Nice."

"Sure. He deserves it," Cindy smirked.

"Why live in New Orleans?" Elena asked. "Aren't there better places to live in as a vampire?" She glanced at Damon.

"I moved there after reading _Interview with the Vampire_," Cindy admitted. "I've barely moved out of there since then. It works, because I usually stay indoors and come out at night. Also, I was turned when I was…twenty-two, and there are thirty-year-olds who look like they're twenty, so nobody comments my appearance because of that, really."

Elena looked closely at the female vampire. "I can't see a daylight ring," she said, puckering her eyebrows in confusion. "No necklace or bracelet either. How can you walk in the sun?"

"You didn't see it?" Cindy raised her eyebrows and then lifted one hand and circled her index finger over her stomach. "I've got a lapis lazuli belly button piercing instead." It was rather pretty, made of silver and a drop-shaped dark blue stone.

"You just want to be different from everyone else, don't you?" Elena said.

"I am different, even for a vampire. Anything else you're wondering about me?"

"When were you turned?" Elena asked, sitting down as well.

Cindy looked disapproving. "Do you really have to know that?" she said exasperatedly.

"Yes."

Cindy sighed, turned her back to them while remaining sitting and lifted up all of her hair. "What does the tattoo say?" she wondered, her tone rather bored.

"'Eternal 1657-1679'," Damon answered after taking a quick look at the black words written in calligraphy below the nape of her neck, with the years placed under the 'Eternal'. "How so?"

"That's the time I was a human," she replied, let go of her hair and resumed her nonchalantly reclining position. "The reason I've got it tattooed is because I can't remember it otherwise."

Age-wise Cindy was right in between Katherine and the Salvatore brothers, and older vampires usually remembered what they'd been through, yet she didn't.

"How come you don't remember?" Elena asked curiously.

"You must've done the same thing over and over if you don't even remember which year you were turned," Damon commented.

"That's true," she confirmed with a nod.

"So what have you been doing?"

Cindy smirked. "Whoring."

Elena and Damon blinked. "What?"

Her eyes twinkled in amusement. "Right," she drawled teasingly. "You don't know that."

"Know what?" Damon said.

"That I'm an ex-prostitute," Cindy answered lightheartedly.

"Well, that explains why you're walking around in your underwear in broad daylight."

"Old habits die hard," she told him, smiling wickedly.

"You mean you were a prostitute for over three hundred years?" Elena wondered with sympathy in her voice. "From when you were turned until recently?"

"No, I quit in the eighteen nineties, but other than that, yes, you're right."

"Why did you do it for such a long time?" she wondered. "It must've been really hard for you."

Cindy smiled friendlily at Elena's naivety. "Elena, I appreciate your concern, but I loved every minute of it. I wasn't forced to do it. I chose myself to become a prostitute."

"But _why_?"

"Honestly, can't you come up with a reason why?" Cindy asked with a raised eyebrow.

Elena shook her head no.

Damon didn't say anything either.

She rolled her eyes. "Blood," she said in an it's-so-obvious-drawl. "It's the ultimate way of staying well-fed. All you have to do is to sit there and look pretty and let the food come to you. For free. With money." She grinned brightly at the ingenuity of it all. "Isn't it brilliant?"

"If you were a prostitute for that long, you should be pretty good in bed," Damon remarked.

She smirked triumphantly. "Practice makes perfect," she purred.

"So blood was the only reason?" Elena said.

Cindy chuckled. "You're desperate to find another reason why I did it, aren't you? It wasn't to fill an emotional void or something. I wasn't particularly fond of my husband, and after I'd died, I got over the man I was in love with."

"You were in love with someone?" Elena leaned forwards, intrigued. "Tell me. I want to hear."

Cindy looked surprised. "All right. Let's see…He was my husband's friend's cousin, I believe."

"Sounds complicated," Damon said.

She shrugged. "It wasn't. I was in love with him and he wasn't in love with me. Simple."

"What was he like?"

She laughed. "I have no idea. He's nothing more than a nameless person without a face now. I don't remember a single thing about him." A lopsided grin curved Cindy's mouth. "I don't get why you're so curious about my nonexistent love life. I can assure you my sex life is a lot more interesting. Although you probably don't wanna hear about that."

Damon smirked. "I wonder if it really is that great."

"I'd love to demonstrate, but Elena would probably mind." Her smirk was lecherous.

"But you wouldn't mind?"

"Please. Having sex in public is fun. Especially when other people are watching. I'll tell you one thing, though," she went on and straightened up a little. "I would _love _to meet Edward Cullen," she revealed delightedly.

Damon wrinkled his nose in dislike. "Why the hell would you wanna meet him?"

"Well, he's a mind-reader, so he can hear what others think and see pictures they think about, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

She smirked. "If I met him, I'd put some deliciously indecent pictures into his head until he's begging on his hands and knees for me to stop."

Damon gave her an amused smirk of approval while Elena rolled her eyes. "And would you stop?"

"Of course not. When he's on his hands and knees begging, I'd show him the heavy, kinky stuff." She looked pleased. "Damn, that'd be good. Too bad I can never do that."

"Are you finished with the sex talk?" Elena interrupted impatiently. "We still have a job to do."

"For your sake I am finished," Cindy said with an impish grin. "But I wasn't the one who got us off track."

"What exactly do you know about the werewolf?" Elena's voice was determined and allowed no nonsense.

"He was bitten by a werewolf so that's how he became one," Cindy began. "He's very hotheaded which is bad because he's very violent even when he isn't transformed." She looked thoughtful for a moment before she opened her mouth again. "It's possible he could be working with a vampire. He's actually more against other werewolves than vampires. That's probably because he never wanted to be a werewolf and now he takes out his anger on innocent people."

Elena nodded to show she understood. "What does he look like?" She ignored the somewhat weird look Damon gave her.

"He's pretty big, dark-haired and every time I've seen him he's been wearing a band T-shirt," Cindy described. "Oh, and he's got this huge tattoo all over his back going up to his hair and it's covering both his arms, too."

Damon and Elena looked at each other. "I think we've seen him," he said.

She immediately perked up. "What? You have?" she exclaimed disbelievingly. "When?"

"After you left earlier today," Damon answered. "He was talking to some blond dude."

Cindy muttered a curse under her breath and fished up a BlackBerry from her right thigh-high boot. "Is this the one you saw?" she wondered after she'd pressed a few buttons and showed them a photo.

"Definitely."

She chuckled humorlessly. "It's strange how the world works. You two see him just like that and I haven't seen him for almost two weeks." She looked up at them again. "Did you hear any names?"

"I only know that the blond one's called Reggie," Damon said.

A sort of amused, incredulous expression took over Cindy's face. "Reggie?" She let out a scoff. "That little cheating bitch," she cussed derisively.

"What, you know something about this Reggie?" Damon questioned.

"Well, the reason we couldn't come here this earlier today was because I was at Reggie's place," Cindy admitted.

"And what were you doing there?" Damon's tone of voice told her that she'd made a weird statement.

"Sleeping with him, of course," she drawled. "I may have stopped with the prostitution, but I'm still a slut. You said so yourself, remember?"

"So what's the deal about you and Reggie, aside from the obvious?" Damon asked.

"Nothing aside from the obvious which is sex," Cindy replied. "Although now it's confirmed that there's a collaboration between a werewolf and a vampire. Reggie's a young vampire, but a vampire nonetheless. He wouldn't be with a werewolf if he wouldn't gain anything from it. Reggie has this uncanny sixth sense so he always knows if there's a werewolf around. I don't know how he does it."

"What's the werewolf's name?" Elena wondered.

"Simon." Cindy's BlackBerry buzzed with an incoming message. Her eyebrows flew up at first, but then a rather evil grin curved her mouth. "Speak of the devil. They've got him." She shot up and over to the door, stopping only because Damon sped as well and slammed it shut.

"Where are you going?" he said threateningly.

"They've cornered both Simon and Reggie," she answered. "We're gonna take out both of them. I don't think Reggie will mind. He's into kink anyway, so I might as well play him to death."

Damon ignored her sexual comment completely. "And you're telling the truth?" he wondered. "You're not just gonna leave and then take _us _out somehow?"

"There's no point in doing that," she protested calmly. "But you can go home now. I don't think the one you're looking for is involved in this. Simon would only work with one person at a time because he can't handle more. What you came for isn't here."

"What happened to your previous friendliness?" He raised his eyebrows challengingly.

"Oh, it's still there," she assured him. "I just wanna get rid of Simon and Reggie, that's all. And that's exactly what I'm gonna do. You can come and watch if you want." She raised her own eyebrows meaningfully, waiting for him to lift his hand from the door handle.

When he didn't, she took a step closer and locked one arm around his neck, pulling his head down to hers, her other hand sassily placed on her hip. "I don't think you'll mind, but she will," she whispered, sensuality dripping from her words.

Taken back by her sudden change, he removed his hand from the handle and she let go of him. "You should probably go," he said arrogantly, "because I'm not interested."

Cindy pouted. "That's a shame." She smiled flirtatiously at him, and then turned to Elena. "If you ever get tired of him or if you're willing to share, I'm in." She reached out and patted Damon on the cheek. "Have fun together," she winked before she opened the door, walked out and quickly disappeared.

Damon snorted and shut the door after her. "I don't know about you, but I'm glad she's gone." He didn't get an answer. He turned and saw that Elena once again was staring out the window. "Elena?" he wondered, his voice softer than it previously had been.

She sighed deeply. "I guess I shouldn't have counted on finding Stefan here. It was all for nothing."

"It wasn't for nothing," he objected as he walked up beside her.

She looked up at him and questioningly lifted her eyebrows. "Why not?"

"We got to spend some time with each other without anyone else around," Damon replied.

She nodded slowly. It had been a nice change, not having to think about who were watching. "You're right. It has been worth something." She put her hand on his arm and gave it a light squeeze before she removed it again.

"We should do it again."

She couldn't help but laugh a little. "We still haven't got Stefan back. Maybe when we've done that."

Damon smirked at her as usual, but there was a light playing in his light blue eyes. "A promise is a promise," he warned her. "I'm not gonna let it go until we've done it."

Elena looked out of the window, not bothering to hide her smile. "Maybe. We'll see."

* * *

><p>THIS IS THE END OF THIS STORY.<p>

Please review and tell me what you think!


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